Notebook: Vergil Ortiz Jr. set to face former title challenger 'Mean Machine'
Valdez defense; TR signs amateur; Ugas on Pacquiao-Spence PPV
Golden Boy Promotions made the expected bout between rising welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. and former world title challenger “Mean Machine” Egidijus Kavaliauskas official on Tuesday.
They will meet in a 12-round fight on Aug. 14 in the main event of a DAZN card at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, a home region fight for Dallas native Ortiz.
“Vergil Ortiz Jr. is developing the most impressive resume for any boxer his age,” Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said of the 23-year-old knockout artist. “Though the welterweight division is perhaps the most competitive weight class in the sport, Ortiz Jr. has been able to maintain a knockout ratio of 100 percent in his big tests against Antonio Orozco, Brad Solomon and Maurice Hooker. On Aug. 14, Ortiz Jr. will look better than ever and remind everyone why he is the biggest threat at 147 pounds.”
Ortiz (17-0, 17 KOs) is coming off an impressive performance in a seventh-round knockout of fellow Dallas native and former junior welterweight world titlist Hooker on March 20 in Fort Worth. Ortiz wanted to fight WBO world titlist Terence Crawford but that went nowhere. Now he will face a man Crawford stopped in the ninth round in December 2019.
“I always said I’m here to take on the toughest challenges to prove myself,” Ortiz said. “Egis is a very game, strong opponent, and a win over him would leave no doubts that I’m ready for a world title fight immediately. It won’t be easy, but that’s the point. The fans are going to enjoy this one.”
After the loss, Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs), 33, a 2008 and 2012 Olympian from Lithuania, bounced back by knocking out Mikael Zewski in the eighth round in September.
“Fans (have) been asking for this fight, and we’re going to give it to them,” said Kavaliauskas, who recently parted ways with career-long promoter Top Rank after the win over Zewski.
Valdez-Conceicao on tap
While Top Rank has not yet made a formal announcement — it is expected next week — junior lightweight world titlist Oscar Valdez will make his first defense against amateur nemesis Robson Conceicao on Sept. 10 at Casino Del Sol in Tucson, Arizona, where Mexico’s Valdez grew up, sources told Fight Freaks Unite. The fight will air on an ESPN platform.
The making of the fight does not come as a surprise because Top Rank chairman Bob Arum and Valdez manager Frank Espinoza told Fight Freaks Unite in late April it was the fight they were working to finalize.
Valdez (29-0, 23 KOs), 30, a 2008 and 2012 Mexican Olympian, aims to avenge a significant amateur loss to Conceicao (16-0, 8 KOs), 32, of Brazil, who beat him in the 2009 Pan American Games finals in Mexico City. Conceicao eventually won an Olympic gold medal at home at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
Valdez, a former featherweight titlist, will be fighting for the first time since he dominated and brutally knocked out Miguel Berchelt to take his 130-pound title in an upset on Feb. 20 in Las Vegas.
Hot prospect Xander Zayas (9-0, 7 KOs), 18, of Sunrise, Florida, is also penciled in for the card in a six-round junior middleweight bout.
TR signs standout amateur
Top Rank announced that is has signed amateur standout Hugo Micallef, 23, of Monte Carlo, Monaco, to a multi-year promotional contract.
Micallef, who was reportedly 112-17 in the amateur ranks, will make his professional debut on Sept. 10 in Paris on the undercard of the heavyweight fight between Tony Yoka (10-0, 8 KOs) and Petar Milas (15-0, 11 KOs), which will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States.
Micallef will box as a junior welterweight and be trained by Carlos Formento, who has worked with former welterweight world champion Kell Brook and former junior welterweight world title challenger Anthony Yigit. He is managed by Karim Bouzidi of Versus Sports Management.
“Hugo has everything it takes to be a superstar in the sport,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. “His amateur pedigree is extensive, and I believe he’ll usher in a generation of pro boxing in the Principality of Monaco.”
Said Micallef: “It’s a tremendous honor to be signed by the best promotional company in the business. I have dreamed of this moment. I’m ready for the start of my professional journey, and I hope to one day bring a world title back home to Monaco.”
Quick hits
Yordenis Ugas will defend his welterweight belt on the Fox Sports PPV undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Errol Spence Jr. unified welterweight title fight on Aug. 21 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, a source with knowledge of the card told Fight Freaks Unite. There is no set opponent yet. Ugas (26-4, 12 KOs), 35, a Cuba native fighting out of Miami, won the vacant WBA secondary belt by split decision against Abel Ramos last September and was later elevated to “super” titleholder when Pacquiao was unceremoniously stripped. This will be Ugas’ first fight since beating Ramos.
Former two-time super middleweight titlist David Benavidez’s WBC title elimination fight against former titleholder Jose Uzcategui (31-4, 26 KOs), which is scheduled to headline a Showtime card on Aug. 28, will take place at Phoenix Suns Arena in Phoenix, Premier Boxing Champions announced on Tuesday. It will be a homecoming fight for Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs), who is a Phoenix native. He has not boxed at home since May 2015 when he won a preliminary bout by second-round knockout against Ricardo Campillo in a scheduled six-rounder at the same venue but when it was called the US Airways Centre.
Show and tell
Amir Khan and Danny Garcia both have been involved in exciting and significant fights and when they met to unify two junior welterweight world titles in an HBO main event at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas it checked both boxes. Khan was very sharp in the first two rounds, but then Garcia scored a hard knockdown in the third round and looked very shaky when he got to his feet. Khan never truly recovered from the third-round knockdown and Garcia dropped him again early in the fourth round and then again soon after. Khan, who has always had a big heart, got to his feet but his legs were gone and referee Kenny Bayless stopped the fight to give Garcia the upset victory. That exciting shootout was on July 14, 2012 — nine years ago on Wednesday. Here is a site poster from the fight in my collection.
Valdez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
Hugo Micallef didn't qualify for the Olympics, he was beaten by welterweight world number #1 Pat McCormack in the welterweight quarter final of the European qualifying tournament.
In fact because Micallef suffered 3 standing counts in a single round the referee had to stop the fight, as is the current rule - he had been given a boxing lesson and would have needed a very unlikely KO to win.
McCormack went on to win the tournament and is now one of the favourites for the gold medal.
Maybe Micallef would have done better in the lightweight tournament as the weight limit was 63kgs (138.9 lbs).
Perfect step-up opponent for Ortiz but a tough one. This should give us more idea about the current level of Ortiz more than any of his previous performances.